The 2026 high school football season has officially begun in the Washington, D.C. area, with the WCAC, IAC, and MAC conferences kicking off their campaigns this past weekend. Opening weekend was packed with action: Archbishop Spalding visited DeMatha, Gonzaga hosted Calvert Hall, Good Counsel traveled to Pennsylvania to face Bishop McDevitt, and in the IAC/MAC, Potomac visited Landon, while Washington-Liberty took on Bishop O’Connell.
High school football in the District of Columbia is governed by the DCSAA (District of Columbia State Athletic Association), which awards Division I and II state championships annually under the supervision of the city’s State Athletic Office. However, some of the region’s top programs, such as DeMatha, Gonzaga, and Archbishop Carroll, compete in the private WCAC and IAC/MAC leagues, rather than the public DCSAA divisions. This is why football coverage in the Washington, D.C. area typically covers both the DCSAA standings and those conferences, rather than focusing on one or the other.
For fans who want to follow a specific program, the DCSAA directly publishes its full championship schedule and playoff brackets, while MaxPreps’ Washington, D.C. metro area section covers the schedules and results of the DCSAA, WCAC, IAC, and MAC programs combined. This is helpful because many of the area’s biggest games are technically conference games, not DCSAA state championships.
Once the season is in full swing, Fridays in the Washington, D.C. metro area… They typically feature more than 100 games from programs in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Northern Virginia, with an increasing proportion of nationally or regionally ranked teams as fall progresses.
Check our Scores page for DC-area results throughout the season, and our Rankings page for where the region’s top teams stand.